Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

If you have any questions or concerns regarding SEND please contact our SENCO Gaea Hill on 01531 820589.

At the Federation of Newent Schools, we view the need for identifying children as having a special educational need as a duty to protect and support the child, their family and the staff. We are proud that we do not treat all children as the same but make our planning and teaching based around the individual needs of all children. We maintain a forward-looking approach, trying to make sure that the child will always be supported appropriately, especially as they transition between schools. However, we are also aware of the past experiences of the child, family and staff and build this into future support. All of this is to create the best possible for that provision for that child.

Children within our schools are identified as having Special Educational Needs if they are needing special educational provision within the school and if they are having a significantly greater difficulty than the majority of others of the same age in certain areas. Children with disabilities will be considered this in school if they have an adverse effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

Within the government’s guidance document (Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 0-25), there are four broad areas of SEN:

Communication and Interaction

Children with speech, language and communication needs may have problems communicating with others. This could be shown through struggling to create speech, or through struggling to say what they mean, or struggling to understand what others are saying to them. This could also mean that the child does not understand the rules of social communication.

Such children could have a stammer, struggle with comprehension, lack vocabulary when speaking or they could be on the autistic spectrum.

Cognition and Learning

Some children learn at a slower pace than other children of the same age. This can mean the child has moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD) where the child will need significant help with all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with communication and mobility, or profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) where the child has complex learning difficulties alongside sensory impairments and/or a physical disability.

Such children could have dyslexia, dyspraxia or dyscalculia.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

Some children have their learning affected by problems that are manifested through specific behaviour changes. This could be shown through a spectrum of behaviours from being withdrawn and isolated to aggression and loud outbursts. Some of these behaviours may indicate underlying mental health issues such as anxiety, eating disorders or abuse.

Other behaviours may be indicative of specific disorders such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attachment disorder.

Sensory and/or Physical Needs

Some children may have a disability which will prevent them accessing the general facilities provided within school. Sometimes these may change over time or even during the day. Some children with visual impairment (VI) or hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) will need specialist support. Some children with a physical difficulty (PD) will need ongoing support in order to access all the opportunities available within school.

We are aware as a school that not all children who have sensory or physical needs will be counted as having SEND and we will treat each child on a case by case basis.

A full description of how children with SEND are supported within our schools can be downloaded here: